Entertainment Editor-at-Large, Los Angeles

Summer Bay, the fictional coastal community where the long-running Seven Network drama Home and Away is set, is known for sun, surf and bronzed bodies.

It also has an impeccable record of creating stars, such as Chris Hemsworth, Simon Baker, Guy Pearce, Julian McMahon, Melissa George and Ryan Kwanten.

This year, five former Home and Away actors - Luke Mitchell, Bob Morley, Chris Egan, Luke Bracey and Lincoln Lewis - have landed roles in big US television pilots, leading an Aussie invasion of Hollywood.

Leading man:Luke Mitchell.

There isn't something in the water, insists Seven Network's head of drama Julie McGauran, but she concedes Home and Away, one of Seven's drama flagships for more than two decades, has a good record for delivering stars.

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''We cast actors to play characters and every character is different,'' she says. ''If you look at those five guys, they're very different in tone and style.

''The fact that the guys have gone on to something, that makes us very pleased and proud for them, and we hope that we've had some part in them learning their craft,'' McGauran said.

Much anticipated: Chris Egan in Gothica.

Mitchell has been cast as the lead in the US remake of the British science fiction series The Tomorrow People. Morley will star in The Hundred, about a group of juvenile delinquents aboard a prison spaceship who return to Earth after a cataclysm.

Egan, meanwhile, will play Dorian Gray in Gothica, one of the most talked-about pilots. It is a mash-up of gothic literature including Frankenstein, Dracula and Jekyll and Hyde. Another Australian Underbelly and Cloudstreet star Emma Booth is also in Gothica.

Luke Bracey will star in Westside, a television pilot based on the story of Romeo and Juliet. The pilot focuses on ''two rival families, the Nances and the Carvers, and a forbidden and dangerous romance emerging between them as the families battle for control of the city''.

Lincoln Lewis, the son of former rugby league star Wally Lewis, will play Bracey's brother.

McGauran says Australian actors tend to do well in the US because the pressures of Australia's leaner, tougher production culture instils professional values in them.

''Home and Away, for example, is a good breeding ground because they're making 2½ hours of TV a week,'' she says.

''When young actors work with experienced actors … they learn about professionalism, about respecting the other cast and crew, being on time, knowing your lines, learning your craft. Chris Hemsworth, in particular, has talked about Ray Meagher instilling that in him,'' McGauran said.

Aussie actors navigate way to US seeking pilot success

A starring role in a TV pilot can be a stepping stone to Tinseltown success, but there are no guarantees.

Every January and February, the US networks cast between 70 and 90 drama and comedy pilots, from which perhaps only a few dozen get the green light. The successful pilots, and some that are undecided, are shown to international programmers at a week-long event known as the ''May screenings''.

Appearing in this year's pilots are Rachael Taylor, starring alongside former X-Files star Gillian Anderson in an untitled drama for 20th Century Fox, and Miranda Otto and Bojana Novakovic in the US remake of the Aussie drama Rake.

Jacki Weaver has landed a role in a new comedy, The McCarthys, for CBS, and comedian Rebel Wilson is starring in Super Fun Night for the ABC.

Former Neighbours actress Adelaide Kane, meanwhile, has landed the lead role in Reign, in which she will play Mary, Queen of Scots.